I expect this will earn me many enemies. I am an atheist. It's not a militant atheism. It's actually a small part of my philosophy. It makes me angry when some local politicians in my home town and all over the country deny permission to show the Nativity Scene or a cross on public grounds. The stories of all religions are wonderful. But in my mind it's fiction. I view it this way: God did not create man, man created God. In America we have a separation of church and state. Our founders were deists. They believed that God created man and the universe, but then stepped back to see how his creation performed, never interfering in man's work. Read The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State (Paperback) by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore.

So, if there is a God (and I cannot prove their isn't, no more than a believer can prove there is), the way the world is going today I see God as just laughing at his creation in a cruel and destrutive manner.

And please don't think that one can be moral only if he believes in a God. There are three values I hold as fundamental: Reason, Purpose, Self-esteem. And seven virtues: rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.

A poem written about this painting by the poet Brian Faulkner:

"Show not His face, they said.I picked a pen and drew His head."Blasphemer! Thou shalt die!"I drew a tooth, I drew an eye."Thou now shalt go to Hell!"God's shrieking face, I drew it well.

I can't see why this couldn't be God. he's a very flexible kinda guy I read a story once, it was kind of like this:

One afternoon I was invited by God to have tea with him. I was, of course, very honored and said yes.When I went to God's place I saw that he had dressed himself in the shape of a crocodile. I asked him why and he said: "Because that is how you see me".

Sweet huh?I think God is very individual as he created each and everyone of us. I can see him as an old black man, Morgan Freeman style, and I can also see him as a punk girl laughing at a party. Why not? Doesn't that tell of how wonderful he is? How versitile and stuff? I'm not saying all of this to try to convert you or anything I think your pic is great. Hugz!

I AM A BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIAN AND I CAN TELL YOU THIS IS NOT GOD. I KNOW BECAUSE 2PETER 1-3 SAYS "HE IS LIGHT AND IN HIM THERE IS NO DARKNESS". YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ 1JOHN 1-5. THIS COULD NOT POSSIBLE BE THE GOD I KNOW BUT THERE ARE MANY "gods of this world" OF WHICH I KNOW LITTLE AND THIS MIGHT BE ONE OF THOSE. PHIL. 2:12 SAYS "WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION WITH TREMBLING AND FEAR (WHICH IS REVERENCE OF GOD). IT IS A SERIOUS MATTER AND A CHOICE WE MUST MAKE AS INDIVIDUALS. I AGREE WITH THE COMMENT FROM VERDOKAI ABOVE..I BELIEVE GOD IS WEEPING OVER THIS GENERATION. BUT ROBERT, YOU HAVE DONE A MOST EXCELLENT JOB OF PORTRAYING SUCH A HIDIOUS BEING, AS I WOULD EXPECT FROM YOU. WELL DONEDEAR FRIEND.

"Is God willing, but unable to prevent evil?Then he is not omnipotent.Is God not willing, but able?Then he is malevolent.Is God both willing and able?Then why is there evil?Is God neither willing, or able?Then why call him God?"

I always imagined God (postulating what if he's there after all, just for a fun inner experiment) as the Ultimate Boss Villain, pretty much like the mathematician Paul Erdos explained: 'Everytime a theory/[mathematical] solution is wrong, the Great Fascist gets a point. If a theory/solution is right, nobody gets any points. The goal is to keep the Great Fascist's score low.'Because if there is a god, that limits humanity's possible range of progress. (As in knowledge, healthspan, technology etc.) And anything that artificially limits growth and confines a mind into feeble, miserable existence is evil.

I read this and I wasn't angry but I did like what you had to say. I am a Christian but I am an old style Humanist is the sense that Faith and Reason go hand in hand. Though I'm not sure if he's laughing rather that he is pondering, pondering what will we do next. I don't beleive in predestination but I do think he knows what we might make. I'm not a deist and i do think he influences us in life but not totally controls and that take saway from Free will. I have nothing against atheists but I do have a problem with militants hellbent with wiping the name of God and the such off the face like Richard Dawkins and his sort. But I did appreciate a good amount of what you said though I'm not particularly fond of the picture rally it seems creepy and more like a Satan( whom I beleive would be the one to laugh at this seeing as he likes it and god loves and cares for us*

I'll look for it. I also see you like Ayn Rand and she is a writer I am recently getting into myself.

Yeah Radical religion isn't good, we are supposed to evangilise but not shove it into a person's throat. Same with Militant Atheism, you can't really wipe out God..history even shows that's a BAD thing, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley show that that is a BAD thing. and I cannot live in State Atheism.

When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!

And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair;
They shall find real saints to draw from -- Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!

that Kipling Poem seems very christian and god like in my mind. Actually you seem to have alot of christian traits in yourself or more Deist than Atheist though you yourself said atheism is very small in yourself.

I like parts of Objectivism, not everyhting so I cannot be a full objectivist( tohugh an induvivudal found how to be a christian objectivist I can show you if you ar intrigued) but alot I agree with and I've amde several arugments, not written, about the philosophy to acheive and be great.

And yeah it's not a good existance, God is essential for a nation or governemnt in my opinion. Even you don't beleive in it you could say the laws were set by God and the rules or by religion at least.

Yes, I was brought up a strict Catholic; went to the seminary thinking God was calling me to be a priest. So much good in religion I admire. True, atheism is a very small part of my philosophy of living. The main thing to me is that it's my life to make what I will with it. Free will is an absolute to me. I do not think I'm ordained by any God to turn out the way I will. I am self-made.

The laws are to me given not by God, but by nature. It's natural for one to pursue his own happiness.

I must disagree about existence being not good. What is just is. It's in my power to accept whatever comes my way, or to fight it if I must. But generally, existence is a wonderful world.

Well I fall upon the same thing i mean I choose what to do in my life but my personal opinion is that God let's us i mean he's never really entered a person's body and amde them do as he p;eases. I mena the whole Bible they all make the choice to do as he says I mean a man makes his own destiny but I don't beleive that it negates the idea of God I mean all of what you said still can go with the idea of God existing.

What made me change was Vietnam. I was killing Communist atheists, and it didn't seem right according my my Catholic upbringing. In 1969 I discovered Ayn Rand, and I came to see that killing an enemy, who proclaimed atheism, but killed in the name of it was wrong. Soviet Communism has nothing at all to do with my own atheism. I'm a gentle soul about atheism. And religion. I grant each their say, but I do accept atheism as the correct philosophy.

Buddha:
'Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true'.

Sorry, man, I meant to applaud your courage for tackling such a sensitive topic in a way that is both audacious and yet makes so much sense... but the teeth and the hair caused me to burst out laughing.

I have looked at your painting long - and read your text below. I appreciate your honesty. I think everyone of us could learn the best by carefully considering what his fellow man is saying and why - without any aim to condemn or distain. Still, I am and want to be a christian, but not a right wing political fundamentalist. I know that this world is greater - and older - than we ever anticipate - so also God, who is secret. We can know something of him, only something but enough for good living in this and future life. This just happened to be my last submission here [link]

See, your "After Resurrection" is a case in point. I love religious paintings--just look at my favorite artist in my Journal--Raphael. I love his Madonnas. However it's his great work I love the most, his "School of Athens" [link] There he depicts the great schism in the world today. He shows Plato pointing up to a supernatural unknowable realm. Aristotle he shows calmly resting his hand to the earth. I'm on the side of Aristotle.